Why Life Feels Like a Battle
Day 17 — Unseen: John 8:44, 1 Peter 5:8-9
Introduction
You’ve probably noticed that this doesn’t get easier just because you can see more clearly.
In fact — and this is something nobody warns you about — the more clearly you see, the more you become aware of the resistance. The pull back toward the old verdict. The voice that whispers that the Father’s delight is for someone else. The subtle erosion of the identity you’ve been receiving. The way the old operating system keeps trying to reinstall itself the moment you let your guard down.
You are not imagining it. And it is not coming from nowhere.
Jesus was remarkably direct about this. He didn’t soften it or leave it vague. There is an enemy. He is real, he is active, and he has a specific interest in you — not in spite of everything you’ve discovered over the last sixteen days, but because of it.
As an image bearer of God. As a child of the Father. As a citizen of the Kingdom of Light. As the object of God’s fullest expression of love. As someone in whom the Spirit of the living God now dwells — you are a target.
But you are not without help. You are not without armor. And you are not without hope.
Today we look clearly at the enemy — not to frighten you, but to name what you are already dealing with. Because you cannot defend against what you refuse to acknowledge. And you cannot be frightened by an enemy whose defeat has already been secured.
Scripture
“You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”
— John 8:44 (NIV)
Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings.
— 1 Peter 5:8-9 (NIV)
Reflection
The Enemy Jesus Describes
Jesus doesn’t speculate about the enemy. He describes him with precision.
A murderer from the beginning. A liar. The father of lies. Someone in whom there is no truth — not a distorter of truth, not someone who mixes truth with falsehood, but someone for whom deception is the native language. Every word from him is engineered to destroy.
And what does he target? Look at what has been revealed over the last sixteen days. The Father’s character. Your true identity. The Kingdom you belong to. The Spirit within you. The life to the full that Jesus promised.
Every single thing that has been unveiled in this series is something the enemy works to obscure, distort, or steal. He doesn’t need you to become an atheist. He just needs you to forget who you are. To drift back toward the old verdict. To stay in the doorway. To live as if the curtain was never pulled back. To go through the motions of faith without ever experiencing its fullness.
Peter describes him as a prowling lion — not a defeated one lying still, but one actively moving, looking, seeking. Not randomly. Strategically. Targeting the ones who are waking up. The ones who are beginning to see. The ones who are stepping into their identity and their Kingdom purpose.
Not a Fair Fight
Here is what is important to understand about the enemy: compared to you, he is formidable. Compared to Jesus, he is nothing.
Peter says he prowls like a roaring lion. That is not a small image. A lion is apex predator — powerful, strategic, patient. Left to our own devices, our own strength, our own wisdom, we are no match for an adversary who has been studying human weakness since the Garden of Eden.
But we are never left to our own devices. And this is where the entire framing shifts.
The enemy’s power is not the point. The supremacy of Christ is the point. And the supremacy of Christ over every power, every principality, every spiritual force of darkness is not a future hope — it is a present, accomplished, irreversible reality.
At the cross, Jesus did not merely forgive sin. He broke its power. He did not merely defeat death — He destroyed it. He did not merely limit the enemy’s influence — He disarmed him. Colossians 2:15 says Jesus made a public spectacle of the powers and authorities, triumphing over them by the cross. This is not a close contest. This is a rout.
And the one who accomplished that rout — the risen, reigning, all-authority-in-heaven-and-earth Jesus — is the same one whose Spirit lives within you. The same power that raised Him from the dead is not stored somewhere at a safe distance. It is present within you, right now, in this moment.
The enemy is loud. He is strategic. He is genuinely dangerous to anyone standing in their own strength. But he is catastrophically outmatched by the one who lives in you. The roaring of a defeated lion is still loud — but it cannot change the outcome of a battle that has already been won.
You are not fighting for victory. You are fighting from it. The cross settled this. The resurrection confirmed it. The Spirit within you is the living proof of it.
Grace Note
“You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.” — 1 John 4:4 (NIV)
“The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.” — 1 John 3:8 (NIV)
Jesus didn’t appear merely to save you from sin — He appeared to destroy the enemy’s work entirely. To break the power of sin, defeat death and the grave, and offer freedom from every bondage the enemy has used against humanity. The one who accomplished all of that lives within you. The enemy is not your equal. He is not even close. Tomorrow we look at what it means to stand in that reality fully armed.
Prayer Prompt
Jesus, I think I’ve been feeling the battle without understanding it. The resistance, the old voices, the pull back toward the verdict — I’ve been treating it as my own failure rather than recognizing it as something with a source.
Thank You for naming the enemy clearly. Not to frighten me — but to explain what I’ve been experiencing and to show me that I am not imagining it.
I want to be alert without being afraid. Aware without being overwhelmed. I want to see the enemy’s tactics for what they are — lies, distortions, attempts to pull me back toward a smallness that was never Your intention for me.
Remind me on the days when the old verdict gets loud that it has a source — and that source has already been defeated. Remind me that the roaring is loud but the teeth have been pulled. Remind me who I am and whose I am.
I am not fighting for victory. I’m fighting from Your victory.
Amen.
Response
1. Name the Tactic: Look back over the last two weeks and identify the specific way the enemy has most consistently tried to pull you back. Is it the resurrection of the old verdict? Doubt about the Father’s character? The whisper that the full life is for someone else? Name it specifically. You cannot resist what you haven’t identified.
2. Trace the Lie: Take the tactic you identified and trace it back to its source. What is the specific lie underneath it? Write it down. Then write the specific truth from this series that directly contradicts it. The enemy’s weapons lose power when they are brought into the light of Christ’s supremacy and named for what they are.
3. Stand on the Victory: Read Colossians 2:15 out loud: “And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.” Then read 1 John 4:4: “The one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.” Say both twice. You are not bracing for a battle whose outcome is uncertain. You are standing in the aftermath of a victory that has already been won. Tomorrow we look at what it means to stand there fully armed.
To read all the posts in this devotional series, visit: https://www.thisistheway.live/t/unseen
© Steve Peschke / This Is The Way